The reviews on Cabin in the Woods are out. Hell, even the contrarian follow up reviews by people calling the film “overrated” are out (the latter are full of crap). But the film is worth a little further examination.

Every once in awhile a film takes a stab at redefining a genre. The ones that hit it out of the park include Night of the Living Dead for the zombie film and The Godfather for gangster films. Go check out pre-Night zombie movies or pre-Godfather gangster movies; they do not remotely resemble those that follow these two films. Many films, over the past hundred years, can make this claim.

Cabin in the Woods probably can’t but it comes damned close.

It takes the Friday the 13th style, “kids out in the woods” sort of movie and gives it form. It attaches an overarching theme to 50 years of horror film making and it does it with humor and splash of gore.

One of the problems with a film like this is that it might not withstand spoilers very well—which also can mean it might not bear multiple viewings. There is no way to tell at the moment. Everyone will need to wait a few decades (or at least a few viewings) to determine that.M. Night Shymalan’s The Sixth Sense might seem the sort of film to fall apart on second viewing but it doesn’t. It just seems like an entirely different film when you know the “twist.”

The twists and turns in Cabin are, at once, more obvious and more subtle. No spoilers here but it is very reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Joss Whedon once said he was inspired to create Buffy by how EVERY horror film had a scared blond woman running from a monster or a killer. She was always helpless and always wound up dead. Buffy turned that on its head. The blond girl was the one who KILLED the monsters. She was the one who scared the monsters. Cabin in the Woods does a similar thing with not just “slasher” films but ANY film that sends a group of teens out into the woods. It pokes fun at HOW they wind up there, all the warnings they receive not to go and, once they are there, about precisely what predicament they will face.

If you know Whedon then you will expect humor and you will be happy to see some “old friends” from some of his previous efforts on television --s well as actors from such shows as The West Wing, Six Feet Under, Grey’s Anatomy and The Shield. This is to say nothing of the appearance of Thor.

The movie isn’t a one note film either, it isn’t Scream. It isn’t something there will be a sequel to as the plot, slyly, precludes any sequel. The ending also is a neat turn on some of Whedon’s earlier TV efforts. The film isn’t the best horror film ever made. It is somewhere between scary and the Evil Dead. You are never going to be really afraid here but this works and it should be a welcome change for fans of more mainstream horror films.

The Raid: Redemption has a message, an important message, for today’s youth. If you come upon a guy, standing in a pile of corpses that he has just killed with his bare hands (or with the corpses’ own weapons) do not, under any circumstances, attack him. Even if your drug lord boss has ordered you to do so; do not attack him. And if you MUST attack him and you do so from behind? Do not run at him hollering “YAAAAAAAAAAAAA.”

I think everyone can admit these are valuable things to know. Also, in real life, do not pick a fight with Iko Uwais or anyone who looks like him.

The Raid: Redemption is an action film that is so focused on the action that it doesn’t even have opening credits. Opening credits take away time from machete fights and this film does not want any time taken from machete fights.

The plot is simple; there is a building controlled by a crime boss and a team of cops are going in to take him down. There are a few twists and turns in this but nothing that veers outside the standard martial arts film formula. But that is a good thing. When you watch a Terrence Malick film you want to be inspired to think. When you watch a romance you want to be dewy eyed. When you watch a martial arts movie you want to see butt-kicking. Machetes must swing, bullets must fly and spectacular acrobatics must ensue.

A martial arts film also a) not be too talky b) not be so stupid you are rolling your eyes between fights c) not use stand-ins in fight scene.

When martial arts movies feel the need to explain the history and details of what is going on? They inevitably fall apart. This is because the details usually range from silly to incomprehensible to dull. Sometimes they manage to be all three. Good martial arts movies paint with a broad brush and let the audience fill in the gaps. I do not need to know more about the cop’s family in The Raid. This is true in much the same way we didn't need to know the minor villain "O'Hara" from Enter the Dragon had a rough childhood.

As to stupidity, most of these movies are full of plot holes and flaws. The trick is to make it so the audience doesn’t notice them. Limiting the talking is one way to do this. Writing a script that moves briskly along is another. Two movies with great fight sequences? The Big Brawl and Rumble in the Bronx are made close to unwatchable by everything that occurs in between the fight sequences. Melodrama and comedy are not usually strong points of martial arts movies. The Raid briefly shows the main character with his wife at the start of the film and he has a brief exchange with an older man. We get he has a pregnant wife. We see him working out so we know he is a bad ass. We do not need his wife put in danger to be rescued when it has nothing to do with the plot (many movies cannot resist this).

Among the other positives of The Raid; Redemption is that it will inspire you to watch great martial arts films of the distant and not so distant past. I, for instance, re-watched Ong Bak last night. Some of the fight scenes are ruined at the end by the obvious use of a double. They likely had to reshoot parts of the scene because the actor was obviously a martial artist. In other cases the actors cannot fight. It is the rough equivalent of a surf movie where the actors cannot surf. Hire different actors. No one cares if there is a “name” Western actor in a movie.

This film’s star, Uwais, is also pretty certainly destined for stardom. He has the intensity of Tony Jaa but also carries himself in a way that indicates he can probably act too. It is hard to tell in The Raid and it doesn’t matter in martial arts movies but if he gets offered the Indonesian equivalent of Hero, he should be able to cut it (and this is meant literally).